Careless People
by Lyrical Ballads
Summary: [repost] [Beautiful Little Fool oneshot] She heard a little voice whisper in her ear that her life was over. That she and Beni had made a big mistake and there was no going back.


**Disclaimer: **_The Mummy _does not belong to me. Story title was borrowed from _The Great Gatsby._

**Author's** **Note: **This story originally belonged to a three-part oneshot collection called _Boats Against the Current_. I only wrote the first two oneshots and have no intention of writing the third one, so I decided to take down _Boats _and repost the two oneshots separately. This is part of my _Beautiful Little Fool _universe and primarily takes place four months before the start of _BLF. _Beni and Lucy have been married for about a year and a half, Rick is still on his travels around the world, and Jonathan and Evelyn have been living in Egypt for a couple of months. It also takes place shortly after _Enchanted and Repelled_.

* * *

**Careless People**

"He looks like you," Lucy remarked.

Beni lounged on his favorite chair in the living room, a newly lit cigar clasped between his fingers. "Who?" he asked with a bored glance in her direction.

"The baby."

"You have said that a hundred times. Everyone says that."

"He really does, though," said Lucy. "Looks more like you every day."

Beni grinned at her through his cloud of cigar smoke. "At least there's no doubt he is mine."

No, there was certainly no doubt at all. Lucy tried to focus on the issue of _Vogue_ that lay open on her lap, but her eyes kept straying to the rug on the floor where Gabriel played by himself. She remembered when he was born she looked desperately into his face, hoping to see something of herself reflected in his features, and the nurse indulgently told Lucy that the baby took after her, because that was what every new mother wanted to hear. _He's going to be a very handsome little boy_, the nurse declared, gushing over Gabriel's tiny face like he was the first baby she had ever seen.

For a while Lucy tried to believe her, but Gabriel remained scrawny and his eyes became bluer and she knew he would never be handsome. She didn't want to blame Beni, since Beni couldn't help his looks any more than Gabriel could, but every now and then she would foolishly wonder what her little boy would look like if she had made him with somebody handsome, like Rick O'Connell. Which was ridiculous, since she had her chance with Rick and didn't take it, just like she had her chance with a dozen other fellows who were perfectly willing to drown her in all the affection she could want.

But she didn't want any of that. She only wanted Beni.

She tried to read her magazine again, but Gabriel had dropped his toys on the rug and sat there looking up at her, staring at her with wide-eyed curiosity. He was less fussy than usual and Lucy thought it would be nice to bring him out of the nursery, as long as the nursemaid remained nearby, and she was a little startled when her son looked up at her with Beni's eyes. She was still a little surprised, even after a year of looking into that tiny face, that Gabriel didn't take after her at all. Gabriel was living proof that Lucy had chosen Beni. All she had to do was look into that face and know that she had made her choice, that she had willingly slept with the man she called her husband and willingly took his last name to spite her stuffy, uptight family.

At least she was able to give the baby a nice, sensible first name like Gabriel. Beni wanted to give him some outlandish Hungarian name, but Lucy put her foot down. She wasn't going to name her child something she couldn't pronounce.

"His birthday is next month," Lucy remarked, glancing at Beni.

Beni spoke around his cigar. "Who are you talking about?"

"The _baby_," Lucy said again, unable to keep the impatience from her voice. "Haven't we been talking about the baby this whole time?"

"I don't know. You are the one who has done the talking."

"Well his birthday is next month. I'm expecting you to be here."

"What if I am busy?"

"It's his first birthday, Beni," said Lucy, raising her voice a little. "How can you possibly be busy?"

A shrill, piercing sound echoed through the house, as if answering Lucy's question. It rang once, twice, three times, and Lucy shut her magazine with a huff.

"Honestly, I don't know why we have that thing," she said. "Nobody important ever calls."

Beni said nothing. He sat in his chair with the dwindling stub of his cigar clutched between his fingers, eyes fixed in the direction of the telephone. Moments later the housekeeper came bustling in and told Beni he had a call. Lucy tried not to stare at her husband as he got up and followed the housekeeper, but she found herself staring anyway, watching him as he walked across the room in his expensive striped suit and his fine leather shoes. He always insisted on wearing a suit, even when he was lounging around the house, as if he constantly had to prove he had money. That his days as a poor, grasping street rat were over.

But sometimes Lucy didn't think he looked so grand in all his finery. Sometimes she missed the days when he wore the same ragged clothes and the same old fez for days on end. Everything was so much simpler back then.

She strained her ears for the faintest hint of voices in the distance, but Gabriel was making noises to himself as he reached for his toys and she doubted she could hear anything anyway, even if the room was silent. Beni came creeping back in a minute later, a decidedly shifty look on his face, and he avoided Lucy's eyes as he walked back to his chair with as little noise as possible.

"Who called?" said Lucy.

"Nobody," said Beni, fishing a flask out of his pocket as he sat down.

"Well it had to be _somebody_. Who was it?"

"I don't know. I think they called the wrong house."

He couldn't fool her. Lucy knew it was _that woman_ calling the house again. _That__ woman _had called just the other day, when Beni was out and Lucy happened to be sitting near the telephone, and now she had the nerve to call the house again. Lucy was no stranger to Beni's unfaithfulness. He had been straying to other women's beds since they were married, but none of his women had ever dared to call the house before. None of them had ever dared to disrupt the fragile illusion that held Beni and Lucy together through a year and a half of marriage, and now some stranger with an alluring voice had shattered it. Lucy felt restless sitting there with her magazine on her lap and her son playing at her feet; restless and all too aware of the way Beni had looked when he returned to the living room.

She had made her choice. She married Beni because she was having his baby and wanted Gabriel to grow up with his real father, but _oh_, sometimes she regretted that choice. Sometimes she regretted it so much she could cry.

She thought about starting something with the man who came to install the radio last month. He was tall and handsome, rather like Rick O'Connell, and he had a gentle way of speaking when he asked her where she wanted the radio to stand. He was the sort of man who made her think sudden, wild thoughts of taking him aside and whispering scandalous suggestions in his ear, but Beni had been in the room. Beni saw her looking at the man, his brow furrowed in that suspicious frown that once amused her, and she couldn't go through with it.

Lucy stole a glance at Beni, who was lazily tipping the contents of his flask into his mouth, and suddenly felt tired of it all. She was tired of their lovely white house with the big, lovely windows, tired of her husband with the constant wandering eye, even tired of Gabriel; poor, innocent Gabriel who couldn't help resembling his father. A year ago she had been so full of hope, full of foolish dreams of everything turning out right in the end. A year ago she was in Alexandria, spending her days and nights in a splendid little house by the sea, and it was so easy to have hope. It was so easy to believe that Beni would eventually mend his ways and that the two of them would be happy.

She liked Alexandria. She and Beni boarded a train just hours after the wedding and headed straight for the seaside, where Lucy could have the baby in privacy without her family giving her disapproving looks. The house they rented was just down the road from the ocean and she loved to stand outside and feel the breeze that came off the water. She didn't take Gabriel outside, though, once he was born. He was so terrifyingly young and he was so small, since he had come early, and she had been so afraid she would lose him. She was surprised at herself for feeling that way. When she first found out she was expecting a baby, she didn't want him and wished he would conveniently disappear, but once he arrived she was glad she had him, or else her marriage to Beni would be for nothing.

If she lost Gabriel, it would all be for nothing. The hasty marriage, the shiny band of gold that circled her finger, the endless weeks of waking up and finding Beni sprawled beside her. She and Beni would be left all alone with nothing to tie them together, no reasonable purpose for the vows they exchanged on a hot October morning, and it was more than Lucy could bear. So she left little Gabriel in the house and took walks by herself, a sunshade in her hand as she wandered along the shore and dreamed foolish dreams of what her life would be like when she and Beni returned to Cairo.

She remembered sitting in the living room of their little seaside cottage on a quiet evening in April, a month after Gabriel was born. She kept watching the clock and peering out of the cream-colored curtains that covered the front window, wondering if her husband would be home in time for dinner. The woman they hired to cook the meals said it should be ready in half an hour.

Lucy stepped away from the curtains, letting them float in front of the window once more, and sank into an armchair so she could pluck her cigarette from the nearby ashtray and bring it to her lips. She could hear the baby fussing in the next room and was so glad she hired Agnes, the nursemaid, to look after him. Agnes was a plain woman in her thirties, the sort of unassuming woman who could fade into the background of a household without catching any unwanted eyes, and Lucy knew she was being foolish for choosing a nursemaid who wasn't pretty. She knew there were dozens of pretty faces outside the home that could tempt Beni, but she felt satisfied that she at least had control of what happened under her own roof.

The front door creaked open and Lucy rose from her seat, smoothing out the skirt of her pale yellow dress. Men always liked it when she wore yellow. _Like summer itself come to life,_ her old friend Archie had once told her.

"You've been gone for hours," said Lucy, watching Beni slip through the door.

"I told you I would be going out," said Beni.

She drew close to her husband and kissed him on the cheek, relieved that he really _had_ come home before dinner, though her relief was short-lived when she caught the strong whiff of alcohol that came from Beni. "Where did you go?" she asked.

"I was just wandering around the city," he said.

"For nearly four hours?"

"It is a big city, Lucy."

She had been asking the same question for months and the answer was always the same. She didn't mind Beni's frequent trips out of the house; in fact, she found it relaxing when she had some time to herself, but she wished he wasn't so secretive. She helped Beni out of his jacket and caught the scent of perfume as well as liquor, and she knew exactly where he had been that night. The answer was always the same.

"Dinner will be ready soon," she said brightly, forcing a smile on her face as she hung up Beni's jacket.

"I'm not very hungry." Beni sounded bored, as if he had sampled every aspect of fine dining in the space of four hours.

"You're _always_ hungry."

"Well I'm not tonight. I'm going to have a cigarette and go to bed."

"Oh, Beni, can't you at least sit at the table with me?" she pleaded. "It's no fun sitting there all alone."

He made a whiny little noise that wasn't quite a sigh and fished a cigarette out of his pocket. "All right."

She kissed him on the cheek again, hoping to coax the tiniest bit of affection from him. "Thank you."

She received a look from him in return; the sort of look that made her feel like he was truly seeing her. His eyes traveled from her face to the neckline of her soft yellow dress to the bottom of the skirt, and the side of his mouth curved up in a little half-smile. It wasn't much, but it was a lot coming from Beni.

Lucy took him by the hand, trying to ignore the sickly combination of liquor and perfume that clung to his clothes, and felt Beni tense up as she grabbed hold of him. The baby was wailing in the next room.

"Why does he make so much noise?" Beni complained.

"Agnes says he has colic," said Lucy.

"Well you can't blame me if I have been gone for hours."

"He can't help it, Beni."

Beni took an urgent drag on his cigarette, impatiently blowing out the smoke as another wail filled the air. She knew he wasn't used to the idea of being a father. He had only been a father for a few weeks, after all, but he and Lucy were returning to Cairo next month and they were all going to move into a big, lovely white house and everything would be all right. Lucy had to believe that everything would all be right, that all of the anxiety and frustration would fade away once they were settled in a real home of their own, and she gave Beni a nervous smile.

"Would... would you like to hold him?" she said softly, hesitantly.

"Who?" said Beni. "The baby?"

"He doesn't cry so much when you're around him. Haven't you ever noticed?"

"No. I haven't noticed."

"Well it's true. I think he likes you."

"He is a baby, Lucy. Babies don't know anything."

"Please," said Lucy, giving his hand a squeeze. "I really think you ought to see him."

He made that whiny sound again, but he didn't argue with her and followed her into the nursery, his cigarette sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Lucy didn't blame him for spending so much time out of doors, since Gabriel's constant fussing _did_ wear on the nerves, and she didn't even blame him for spending his time with disreputable women. He thought if he left the house early enough, she wouldn't suspect that he visited brothels, but she knew where he went. She had known for months, ever since they moved into their little house by the sea, and she couldn't blame him for wandering off before Gabriel was born. That was simply what husbands did when their wives were expecting babies.

She didn't even blame him now that Gabriel had arrived and was nearly a month old. Beni was a creature of habit, and like any creature of habit he found it hard to let go of his vices, but all of that would change once they left Alexandria. Once they left Alexandria and settled down in old, familiar Cairo, they could be a proper family at last.

Agnes held Gabriel in her arms, trying to rock him back to sleep, and Lucy was struck with how simple it all seemed when Agnes handled the baby. Sometimes Lucy was frightened of Gabriel. Frightened that she would drop him, that he would spit up all over her nice dress, that she would do something dreadful by mistake and make him cry worse than ever. She knew nothing about babies. She had never wanted to have a baby, even when she saw girls her own age pushing carriages down the streets of Chicago, and she was frightened that somebody as small and helpless as Gabriel depended on her.

But Agnes made it look so easy. Agnes made her wish that Gabriel wasn't an accident, that she and Beni had him on purpose because they loved each other and wanted a family, and a sudden desperation seized hold of her as she nudged Beni closer to the baby. She _did_ love Gabriel; she really, truly did in spite of all her fright, and she desperately wanted Beni to love him as well.

"Agnes." Lucy's throat felt dry and she forced herself to speak a little louder, lending a little bit more boldness to her anxious words. "Beni would like to hold the baby."

Beni looked as if he wanted to protest, but he kept his mouth clamped around the cigarette that smoldered faintly in the hot Egyptian air.

Agnes looked like she wanted to protest as well, and that she clearly thought Lucy had gone insane, but instead she spoke in her slow, gentle way and told Beni how to support the baby's head when he held him. Beni looked suddenly nervous and Lucy caught a flicker of fear in his eyes, but he didn't run away when Agnes carefully placed Gabriel in his arms, and soon Gabriel's wails turned into quiet whimpers, which quickly gave way to silence.

"I told you so," said Lucy. "He doesn't mind you at all."

The flicker of fear turned to panic and Beni looked down at Gabriel with wide eyes, as if seeing him for the first time. "Here," he said, holding Gabriel out to Agnes. There was a hint of a whimper in his voice, not unlike the baby's. "I will drop him."

"You've barely held him for five seconds," said Lucy.

"Which has felt like an eternity."

"There's no need to be dramatic. What's so difficult about holding your little boy?"

"If holding our dear, precious little boy is so easy, then how come I never see _you_ hold him?" Beni shot back.

"I think dinner's ready," said Lucy, struggling to keep her voice steady. A couple of hot tears stung the corners of her eyes, though she wasn't sure where they came from, and she blinked them away. "I'm sure you won't mind if I eat by myself."

She was vaguely aware of Agnes taking the baby away from Beni, of Beni taking a hasty step back and bringing his cigarette to his lips, but she didn't stick around long enough to see anything else. She retreated from the nursery at a brisk walk, not caring where she was going or where she might possibly end up, and longed to take a nice, long stroll along the beach.

But it was much too dark for a stroll, even if she took a lantern with her. The beach was frightening after dark, when the sound of waves lapping against the shore turned sinister and every shadow was a terrible sea creature waiting to swallow her up. She walked to the front of the house instead, where the electric lamp cast a soft glow upon the walls, and a horrible thought took hold of her.

It wasn't a new thought, but a familiar one that crept into her mind every now and then, and she heard a little voice whisper in her ear that her life was over. That she and Beni had made a big mistake and there was no going back.

But no, that wasn't true at all. It couldn't possibly be true when so many things could happen, and she longed for the familiar streets of Cairo where everything would be all right.

Beni would learn to love her. He would learn to love her, and someday she would learn to love him back.


End file.
